Last Teen Standing Sloane Stephens Sets Serena Clash

Sloane Stephens is the youngest player into the final eight at the Australian Open

Sloane Stephens, a 19-year-old from Florida, reasserted her case for a spot in the top rank of women’s tennis Monday with a 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 win over World No. 56 Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

“Little kids go home first week, big girls stay for the second week,” she said ahead of the victory, which propelled her into the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. It’s her seventh try.

Stephens, the 29th seed and soon-to-be second-ranked American, landed 80% of her first serves and made 20 winners in the match that lasted one hour and 53 minutes—her longest of the tournament thus far.

“I’m sure my mom had like four heart attacks,” she said. Her mother, Sybil Smith, and brother Shawn Stephens, were watching at home in Coral Springs.

Stephens said though her opponent’s hard, consistent ball-striking— Jovanovski “brought it full-force”—made it hard to find a rhythm, she was able to refocus.

“I didn’t want to stay out there all day,” she said. “You got to hit the ball or go home.”

As the only one still standing of the 17 teenagers who began in the women’s singles draw, Stephens has a chance to become the first teen Grand Slam winner since Maria Sharapova hoisted the U.S. Open trophy in 2006.

But that will take three more wins, of which the toughest could well be the next: Her opponent in Wednesday’s quarterfinal is fellow American Serena Williams, winner of 15 major titles.

“It will be tough obviously—it’s quarters of a Grand Slam,” said Stephens. But she declared that it “won’t be that like first-time ‘Oh, my God, I’m playing Serena’” experience she had in Brisbane earlier this month. Williams took that meeting 6-4, 6-3.

“You have to go out and play your game, no matter what,” she said. “Without the titles, with the titles, it’s still a tennis match, the court’s the same size, you’re still playing a regular person across the net.”

Williams described herself as a “big fan” of Stephens before their Brisbane match, saying, “I think she can be the best in the world one day,” after it. It was in her own seventh Grand Slam, the 1999 U.S. Open, that Williams broke through—making the quarterfinals for the first time and going on to win the title.

The younger American hasn’t planned how she’ll spend her guaranteed paycheck of 250,000 Australian dollars (US$262,910), apart from a pair of Jimmy Choos. “I try to save all my money because I don’t want to be old and broke,” she said with a smile.

Stephens revealed that with Monday’s victory she also won a bet with America’s second-ranking player on the men’s side, world No. 22 Sam Querrey, with whom she shares a coach, David Nainkin. Querrey was knocked out in the third round Friday.

“He’s never been in the quarters of a Grand Slam, so… I got him,” grinned the teen, who is projected to crack the world top 20 in post-Australian Open rankings.

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